Honesty Not Only Best Policy, It`s The Only Policy Among Pros

Someone once marveled to Bobby Jones that golfers were honest enough to penalize themselves for infractions that only they were aware of.

``There is only one way to play the game,`` Jones replied. ``You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.``

Conscience is the most redeeming feature of golf, a game that, in real life, has no practical application.

The PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes will not be decided by a cop. Count on it.

Super Bowls have been. World Series have been. NBA championships have been.

In fact, the larger the prize, the greater the posse.

Golf relies, as it always has, on individual confession.

Hale Irwin once blew the British Open because he wiffed a putt, though only he knew he had done it.

A tour golfer would rather eat live larvae than be accused of grounding his club in a hazard.

In the most famous incident of a golfer losing a major tournament for breaking the rules, Roberto De Vicenzo blamed his own stupidity for signing an incorrect scorecard at the Masters instead of blaming the ridiculousness of the rule.

Integrity is not a puny standard, though the pursuit of it sometimes stretches into absurdity.

A couple of years ago, Craig Stadler was disqualified from a tournament because he hit a ball while kneeling on a towel.

And the disqualification happened a day after the shot, after somebody noticing a TV replay called in to snitch.

Did Stadler gripe? No. He apologized that he didn`t know the rules well enough to have called the penalty on himself.

Golf`s policemen are not only invisible, but unnecessary. The players are their own umpires.

Denis Watson lost the U.S. Open because he waited a few seconds too long for a putt to drop. Had he gone to the bathroom instead of staring at the ball on the lip of the cup, he would not have been penalized two strokes. But once he looked at his ball, it had 10 seconds to fall, which it did, a couple seconds too late.

The regret is that honor is not as prevalent in other sports.

Consider the chaos if a batter were to call his own balls and strikes. Or the catcher.

Imagine an unnoticed defensive back who has whacked a receiver explaining to an official that he really should have called interference on a play, and that if the referee doesn`t march off the penalty, he will do it himself.

Basketball has foul shots. Hockey penalty boxes. Cheating is built into most games.

Even as golf purses soar into the millions, the game has remained true to its code of honor.

In other sports, you get away with what you can. In golf, you get away with what you should.